New
by Cretha Loesing
Summary: The Avengers and Fury are still getting used to the whole alien thing. Despite the fact that the first E.T.s appeared humanoid, they're all still surprised to find that this one is. After all, what in the world is someone from the fifth dimension doing on Earth?


"So what's up Fury? Tired of playing Captain Hook?"

"I called you in for a reason Mr. Stark, not to listen to your bragging."

"I thought you loved me."

These were just some of the sounds the alien woke up to. Though it didn't matter, because the alien wasn't even hearing.

"An unidentified object… appeared outside of Auburn, Washington at-"

"That would be incorrect Mr. Fury," a scientist spoke up, ignoring Fury's glare, "the arrival of the object seemed to a simultaneous crash and phasing. We're still looking into it."

"Dr. Connors, head scientist on this project; the Avengers," Fury introduced testily.

"Wait, aren't you the leading scientist in cancer research?" Banner asked.

"I work in cancer research now, yes," Connors seemed slightly disturbed, "but before that-"

"You worked in the field of astronomy, specializing in extraterrestrial life," Tony interrupted.

"Yes, more specifically, I specialized in biology and how life adapts to different environments…"

"Could we get back to the topic please? Sorry, doctor," Rogers butted in. Connors looked at Fury.

"Perhaps you would like to explain, Mr. Connors, since you're so eager," the director said.

"Yes, thank you," Connors stuttered, and wrung his hands, "in any case, we brought it back. It was a container- made of no substance we have ever seen before. There's also something inside it, but it wo-"

"Alright, let me at it- I can open it with the suit," Stark said.

"Sit down Mr. Stark, let him finish," Natasha said.

"But-"

"It opened three hours ago," Connors dead-panned, hoping to stop the argument. All eyes turned on him, and the nervous scientist wrung his hands, looking down.

"There was a… a being inside," he began nervously, "a strange thing. It's humanoid," his voice became more confident, "grayish-colored. It's got pointed ears- yes, like an elf- and slender large hands. In total it's about 5 foot 6. It hasn't opened its eyes, though it appears to be conscious."

This was what the Alien listened to, along with each of the Avengers' responses.

* * *

The extra-terrestrial opened its eyes. It saw scientists bustling about, white lab coats distinguishing them as similar people. They had different hair-colors, different heights- different expressions and reactions. Some were monitoring screens with flashing lights, blinking bars and wavy lines. All this it saw from behind a sheet of glass.

"Hello?" A scientist entered the room. It studied her, noting the darker skin and black hair- with a caucasian-shaped face.

"Come on, get up," she tugged it and it gasped in pain.

'No' the sound came like an unbidden thought. It needed this, the skin and flesh-lining of its shell to sustain it… if only for a little longer.

"No," it said, clearly not understanding the meaning of the word.

The scientist left the room, deeply disturbed.

* * *

"Hello," Natasha Romanoff addressed the sitting alien. Thor stood behind her, curious but wary. It opened its eyes, white pupils staring at her in black.

"I nih… I nee…" it shook its head, frustration showing on its face.

"I am Natasha," Natasha introduced herself, "this is Thor. Who are you?" The creature simply stared at her blankly, and Natasha gave Thor a nod.

"Greetings, I am Thor. Who are you?" He asked. It pressed a finger to its lips, thinking hard.

"Iham…" it whispered, "Iham Thorh Odins- Odinssssonhh," it pointed to the god, "Iham Natashah Romanovah…" Natasha tensed.

"Natashah," it pointed to the spy, "Thorh," it pointed to thor, and he nodded in approval. Confusion flitted across its face.

"Natasha," Natasha pointed to herself, "Thor," she pointed at the god, then pointed at the being. It stared intensely at her, eyes dilating as it was lost in thought.

"I am Nǔ," it stated suddenly.

"New," Natasha began.

"Nǔ."

"Nǔ, then, why have you come here?" Natasha asked.

It looked confused again, "I am Nǔ."

"Why did you come here? To our planet?"

Nǔ only looked more confused.

"No…" it trailed off, swaying, "no-I need…" they watched as the alien struggled to put words together.

"I need you." It stated the sentence as strongly, and clearly, as it had its name.

"Why?"

"I end." The answer to her question came quickly.

"What to you want from us?"

The alien began rocking, looking down.

"What do you want?" Natasha demanded again.

"Fuel," the alien coughed out, "being that- all gone."

"What fuel? Who is being? What is gone?" Natasha rapidly asked the questions, as the alien began shaking.

"Lady Natasha, perhaps we should-" Nǔ locked eyes with Thor, abruptly stopping all conversation.

"You…" it whispered, then whipped its head to look at Natasha, "energy…" The last word came out in a pleading tone.

"What-"

"Energy," it begged, and Natasha reached out as it fell forward. The alien grabbed her hand, and the spy froze. She paled rapidly, and tears glistened in Nǔ's eyes.

"Thor," Natasha coughed, pulling away from Nǔ. The god yanked Nǔ away from her, and the alien latched onto him instead.

"I… see," Thor locked eyes with Nǔ, "you need our energy, am I right?"

Nǔ blanched, then struggled to form words, "yes." The alien's skin gradually grew whiter.

"Why did you come to Midguard?" Thor asked, prying Nǔ's hands off his arms. The god seemed tired now, bags visible under his eyes.

"I not…"

"Why did you come to here, instead of somewhere else?" Natasha demanded. Thor finally separated himself from Nǔ, and Nǔ watched Natasha and him back towards the door.

"Why?" Nǔ trailed off, turning to stare blankly at the wall. The two Avengers opened the door to leave.

"Fate…" it whispered, "hope and fate." Nǔ lost consciousness.

* * *

"That was just… disturbing," Tony commented as they entered the room.

"Do you know what it is?" Fury directed the question to Thor.

"It resembles those of Alfheim, yet it is clearly not of their kind. I have not heard of this creature in all the nine realms, nor met its kind before," Thor said.

"Nǔ seemed straightforward enough: it needs energy. We can just hand over some batteries or something," Steve said.

"It isn't that simple. If we give it energy, what are we going to do when we run out? We don't have limitless supplies," Bruce added in.

"I have only felt so tired after a hard battle. Nǔ needs a great deal of energy in his current state, he is starving," Thor added.

"It was holding back something, and it seemed distressed," Natasha said.

"Nǔ may not be telling us the whole truth," Barton said, "it could be playing for something."

"Noted," Fury said, "we don't even know the full extent of its abilities."

"I've found something," Tony interjected. The team turned to the genius, as he slid his ipad out on the table for the rest to see.

"There was a massive spike in energy levels right before it came. Heat, light, radiation, it was equivalent to a nuclear bomb going off."

"These readings say that they dropped right after," Banner said, "down to subzero temperatures."

"Exactly. So either Nǔ is a black hole all on his own-"

"or the energy went somewhere else," Bruce finished.

"Where else?" Fury demanded.

"Well, wherever Nǔ came from for starters," Tony said. The director scowled at him.

"Stark, Banner, I want you working on tracking where that energy came from;" Fury ordered, "Agent Romanoff and Agent Barton, see if you can find out if this has happened before; Thor, get some rest; Rogers, you're coming with me."

* * *

"Hey."

Nǔ grimaced, shaking its head while it blinked rapidly. The world blurred and spun as it looked at the visitor.

"You're Nǔ," the man grinned as if making a joke, "I'm Tony Stark. Have a drink." He held out a glass of amber liquid, and Nǔ slowly slid to its feet, leaning on the capsule for support. The alien sat down in it, then hesitantly accepted the glass from Tony. It watched as Stark sipped his own.

"You're supposed to drink it," Tony said at the alien's confused look. Nǔ took a small sip cautiously, then choked, hacking it up.

"Don't inhale it."

"I do not think…" Nǔ paused, "my biology will let me." It held the glass back out to Tony. The billionaire accepted it with a strange look.

"So, you caused a stir," he said, "appearing out of nowhere."

"I do not understand you," Nǔ said, "your… method of communication is confusing."

"Yeah, english is like that- because the world is populated with idiots and I'm pretty sure language was made half-hazardly. However, if I had made it, it would have been better. I'm an engineer, and then language would work," Tony babbled, "in any case, where do you come from?"

Nǔ smiled slightly, "I come from… elsewhere. Not here-I don't know the word…

"…we do not quite have a name for my home…"

"Then what do you call it?"

"Home," Nǔ said. Tony looked disappointed.

"Home is… the motherland, the root, the core… there is no word in _english_… nor any language, I think. We are different than you."

Tony looked skeptical, "aside from pointy ears and skin tone I don't see much of a difference." Nǔ laughed, and the sound was almost melodic.

"You flatter me. No, my world is very different. We are not so… constrained." Tony's face would have told anyone to go on.

"We have more… you have up-down, side-to-side, and forwards-backwards right?" Nǔ asked.

"We have three dimensions…" Tony clarified.

"Where I come from, my home, has… more. Four, I think. Perhaps five," Nǔ paused, looking at the billionaire, "we converse differently. Through… _thought_ and _emotion_, imagery… there are other ways of course, but I cannot describe them."

"If you are from another dimension, you shouldn't be able to exist here," Tony said.

"No…" Nǔ looked sad, "it took much energy to come here, and changing the…" the alien lost the word, "the… the fabric of space-time."

"Obviously."

"They have probably suffered," the alien's skin darkened.

"Your folks?" Tony guessed. Nǔ looked at him curiously.

"My… I suppose they are like a family…" Nǔ said, "they are my, my people. They are those of my kind… my friends."

"So why did you leave?" Tony asked, "I mean, if you were so happy and content there, why did you leave everything you knew?" The alien looked down, skin darkening. It shut its eyes.

"One… there is a blight, a sadness, a loss of energy that happened… not so long ago;" the alien began slowly, "we survived, as we do. But one… one lost another. Somehow, it had never happened before. None knew how, but the other disappeared. Vanished. Gone." Nǔ looked at Tony to reassure itself the man understood.

"That one," Nǔ paused, "that one missed the other. That one was sad, that one loved the other very much… and their disappearance caused great pain. They lost energy, lots of energy. There was pain… we all felt that one's pain. But then-" the alien paused suddenly, "I was the last to… to 'talk', as you would put it, with the other. And so, somehow…  
"that one reasoned in their mind that I was to blame."

Nǔ's face scrunched in pain, "that I ended the other. I did-do not understand. None did. Strangely, that one pursued destruction and pain wildly. That one bent energy inside of one in a sadness, yet… different. The pain they felt and caused… that one was dragging us back, back to another blight. We were lost." The alien took a deep breath.

"Confused. I do not understand… they, they felt…" he struggled to form the words, "but I left." The alien exhaled, deflating as he slouched. Tony looked around the room, uncomfortable with the emotion. Unfortunately, there was nothing remotely interesting about the bland white walls or the tile-floor.

"So I left;" Nǔ said quietly, "I left… so that one would, would stop the destruction. Would stop. Would calm. That I may come back when all was good and well, so that one could see… could resolve." His skin had darkened a lot. Tony blinked, realizing the alien's skin tone was darker than a medium gray. He was sure it had darkened… however something that drastic was shocking. Maybe it was like a chameleon?

"Perhaps I have done some good," the alien whispered, and Tony pretended not to hear. The billionaire recognized it was caught up in a pity-party. He got it. However, his solution was to drink himself off the bandwagon, and the alien in front of him didn't seem to like the taste of alcohol.

But maybe it was just the wine.

Tony was interrupted in his thinking, which really wasn't as long as you think, "shouldn't you be in the lab?"

"Hypocrite," Tony accused. Banner looked at him skeptically, as if saying, 'do you really want to go there?'

"This is Banner, Nǔ, who turns into a giant, green rage-monster-of-epicness when he's angry," Tony said, "so don't make him angry."  
"I do not understand?" The alien was baffled, and both humans noticed its skin gradually lightening,

"Fury wants me to take some tests…" Banner trailed off.

"Tests?"

"Yeah," Tony interjected, "like where they poke you with needles and-"

"I'll just be checking if you're healthy," Banner said with a smile. Nu frowned and the doctor amended his statement, "I mean well."

Nǔ stood up, raising its arms, "can't you see I am well?" Tony face-palmed.

* * *

**Sorry to info-dump you, but it was kinda necessary. In any case, feedback?**


End file.
